Wednesday Food Blogging

Plant-based diets: mainstream, or far-fetched dream?

Plants. It's what's for dinner.

This weekend BBC Radio 4 did a programme on veganism. You can listen here, although I'm not sure if that link will work outside the UK. 

They talked about all the reasons to eat a plant-based diet, talked to several converts, including hard-core meat eaters (such as Mark Bittman) and explored the "mainstreaming" of veganism, particularly in Germany, where there are several all-vegan supermarkets. 

The only problem I have with discussions like these, particularly with Mark Bittman's "vegan before six" approach, is that it glorifies meat. The Bittmans and Pollacks love to talk about how meat should be reserved for a special occasion, a "feast" day. In other words, a special day just isn't complete without meat. 

But if a special day needs meat to be special, couldn't every day really use a little meat to make it a little more special? And pretty soon you're back to where you started: or, if you're Mark Bittman, you're already there. 

In one of Dean Ornish's books, which advocates a low-fat vegetarian diet, he talks about switching from whole-fat milk to fat-free milk, not in gradual stages but all at once. His reasoning? If you drink whole milk one day, then fat-free the next, and whole milk the day after that, you'll always feel deprived on those days you don't drink whole milk.

Likewise, if you reserve meat for special occasions, or after six (which, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't dinnertime the usual time of the day for consuming meat anyway?), you end up never getting over the idea that meat is necessary for a good time.

It's not, trust me.

Don't get me wrong; I think every little bit (err...Bittman) helps: helps the environment, helps your health, and definitely helps the animals' health. So I don't begrudge people who advocate for part-time approaches that, at the very least, lead to better health. 

But I want to see plant-based diets glorified in the way that, say, a bacon-based diet is. I want to see cashew basil cream treated with the respect it deserves, rather than a begrudging replacement for the "real" thing. I want people to realize that those of us who eschew bacon are not deprived in any way. 

Maybe I want too much, too soon. And as the BBC programme reveals, veganism has come a long way, baby. Many people are eating more plants, and fewer animals, even if after six they still pig out on flesh-based meals. So, if VB6 floats your boat, go for it. 

Just don't expect it to be any easier than going whole, well, hog. 

Garden of Eden Ratatouille...and news

Roasted Ratatouille from the garden

When I'm not blogging here or at What Do I Know?, I'm writing fiction as Kathryn Barrett. Recently my first novel, Temptation, was released. It's about a Hollywood actress who moves to Pennsylvania to film a movie set in Amish country. Laura quickly becomes enamored of the simple life, the unexpected calm she finds there in the farming community. And when her handsome neighbor suggests she take up gardening, she embraces the idea with passion.

And just like in the Garden of Eden, all is not well...there's a lot of temptation there amongst the lettuce, and even a snake. And a cute kitten. 

By the time the film is completed in the fall, Laura's garden is full of organic goodness: a bounty she shares with her new friends at a barnraising. 

Throughout the summer Laura experiments with recipes from her garden. She makes pesto with the sensuous basil, ratatouille from the luscious eggplant, loaves of bread with the zucchini-that-won't-quit.

Here's her recipe for Garden of Eden Roasted Ratatouille.

It's really a delicious way to use up garden produce, or the bag of produce on sale at the supermarket. Don't be tempted (!) to skip on the long roasting time; it's the long spell in the oven that really dispels the sweetness and flavor in those cherry tomatoes. By the time it's done your house will smell like an herb garden in summer, and you'll be ready to plant your own vegetable garden. 

It's easy to adapt, too, to larger portions: I'd suggest using two separate roasting pans or dishes if you're using more than the ingredients called for, to avoid having to stir them around too often. (I used a 13 x 9 inch Pyrex dish; you could also use a baking sheet covered with foil.) 

Happy eating, and if you want to read more about Temptation, check out my author website or download it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Kobo. 

Food News: Food stamps bad, pizza good, grammar gone

In MIssissippi, a woman has been sent to jail for three years for applying for food stamps:

Thanks to a federal ban on food stamps for people with felony drug convictions, people like McLemore are out of luck when it comes to getting assistance with putting food on their tables. Though states can opt out of the ban, those that don’t (like Mississippi) deny food stamps even to individuals who have already served their sentences or overcome previous addictions. It’s true that McLemore’s past isn’t perfect — she has four felony drug convictions and one misdemeanor, which place her firmly in the category of people the federal government has declared unfit to receive public benefits. Hence, faced with the prospect of being unable to feed her family, McLemore lied on her application.

Manwhile, Congress has declared pizza a vegetable: 

The spending bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. The department’s proposed guidelines would have attempted to prevent that.

The changes had been requested by food companies that produce frozen pizzas, the salt industry and potato growers. Some conservatives in Congress have called the push for healthier foods an overreach, saying the government shouldn’t be telling children what to eat.

Presidential candidate and former pizza executive Herman Cain, who declared in an interview with GQ that pizzas piled high with vegetables are "sissies", might have something to say about that, but I'm not sure I'd want to listen:

Chris Heath: What can you tell about a man by the type of pizza that he likes?

Herman Cain: [repeats the question aloud, then pauses for a long moment] The more toppings a man has on his pizza, I believe the more manly he is.

Chris Heath: Why is that?

Herman Cain: Because the more manly man is not afraid of abundance. [laughs]

Devin Gordon: Is that purely a meat question?

Herman Cain: A manly man don't want it piled high with vegetables! He would call that a sissy pizza.

(I would prefer a presidential candidate who could form grammatically correct sentences that don't misuse the word "don't". I mean really, if you can make a pizza, surely you can string words together in a proper fashion. No?)

Perhaps Herman Cain could provide some pizza for the lady in Mississippi. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if it was piled high with veggies, and our manly Congress would definitely approve.

This has been another installment of Things That Are Messed Up In America.

A fish by any other name...might as well be tofu

When the Boston Globe investigated the fish sold in Massachusetts restaurants and shops, guess what they found? Half of all fish is mislabeled, either by restaurants themselves or by the wholesellers. 

They found "white tuna" was actually a dangerous fish called escolar, banned in Japan because it makes people sick when they eat it. They found Pacific frozen fish mislabeled as locally caught, often given fancy names to dress it up. They found restaurants serving ocean perch called red snapper on the menu, even when the chef knew the menu was wrong. 

What's interesting is that diners couldn't tell the difference. 

If half of all fish sold in the US is similarly mislabeled, what does this say about people who eat fish? 

Are they willingly fooled? Some environmentally minded foodies will only eat so-called sustainable fish, yet never question the easy availability of such fish on menus. 

Taste is very much about perception: tell someone they're eating or drinking something of high quality, give it an enticing name—like "fresh Chatham day boat haddock"—and they'll enjoy the taste much better than if you told them they're eating something that came out of a box from WalMart (as a matter of fact, the fish sold at WalMart was 100% what it claimed to be). 

This leads me to think that if I dressed up tofu, presented it with a fancy meunière sauce and labeled it "Fresh Chilterns Soyafish" it would be a hit on any menu. 

In fact, I've substituted tofu in recipes calling for fish before—try these North Vietnamese Tofu Brochettes. And Vanilla Tofu with Saffron Rice originally called for scallops. My sushi has never contained raw fish. I've also made shrimp-less etouffee using portobello mushrooms. No, not mislabeled, just delicious. 

North Vietnamese Tofu Brochettes, made from sustainable tofu—honest!

So what's in a fish, really? If you're inadvertently eating perch instead of red snapper and can't tell the difference, why are you buying fish at all? Fish are mislabeled because fishing is unsustainable, and anyone who convinces themselves otherwise is willingly engaging in their own deception. 

Try tofu instead. Search out the rare Fresh Pacific Rim Tofu the next time you make sushi. It's worth the extra effort—and you won't be fooling anyone.

Real Food Festival in London, and Vegan Caviar!

Asparagus and rhubarb from Riverford. Real food.

Who knew there was such a thing as vegan caviar? I sure wouldn't have known if I hadn't attended the Real Food Festival in London this weekend. 

I didn't expect to find too many vegan goodies, but I was pleasantly surprised that many of the exhibitors either had dairy-free or vegan items prominently displayed. One discovery was Shambhu’s vegan catering. They were offering samples of their cheesecake—three varieties, including mint chocolate chip, mixed berry, and lemon coconut with a ginger biscuit base. All three were yumm, and I bought one serving sized container of each to bring home. If I ever need an event catered, I'll definitely call Shambhu’s.

I also talked to the Chiltern Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil folks. I find it kind of funny that they make such a big deal of cold pressed rapeseed oil, which is known as canola oil in the States and is easily available as expeller pressed. I'm not willing to pay £6 a bottle for their expensive canola oil, but I was interested in the bowl of actual rapeseeds they had displayed.

Rape seeds

Since we walk through rape fields quite frequently this time of year, it was interesting to see what the final product looks like. They harvest the seeds in July, after the rape flowers have died off. The oil is as yellow as the flowers, and is also used as biofuel.

Real vegan caviar.

There were quite a few interesting exhibitors, but the real find was Caviar 4 Everyone. It was developed by a Russian doctor, who noticed his patients had high rates of cardiac disease, which he attributed to high fat/high cholesterol fish-based caviar. Soykavy is made from soy, using a unique process. Two varieties were on display; one was milder (and less expensive) and the Beluga was fishier, more pungent. I bought both, and David Hollier, who sells the product here in England at Caviar 4 Everyone, threw in an extra sample size jar of Beluga. I would feel completly confident in serving this to friends who normally eat fish-based caviar, knowing it's that good—and good for you. Serve on a cracker with a smear of vegan sour cream (make your own) and you've got an elegant, tasty appetizer.

I also found exhibitors with other vegan baked goodies, as well as familiar brands I've seen in health food shops. I bought some olive oil from Palestine, and sampled scads of olive oils, spreads, and dips that were vegan. I sipped juices made with English fruit, and white wines from Bordeaux.

No, I didn't have a gin and tonic, despite the temptation. 

Nor did I meet the other Marmalade Addicts. 

But I did buy some olive bread, a bunch of asparagus for £1, and a punnet of the best strawberries I've ever eaten for another pound at the Whole Foods exhibit. Worth the price of admission? Sure. 

 

Michael Pollan: Don't get me started

There is no dilemma here.

When anyone mentions Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, my response is usually: "Don't get me started!" There are many arguments to be made for why he shouldn't be allowed the last word on sustainable eating, but it's pretty much a fool's game to argue with a professor of journalism at Berkeley. After all, who better to understand how the media works, even if he doesn't exactly understand the efficiencies involved in a plant-based diet. (I think the word "vegan" pretty much terrifies people like Pollan, who can't conceive of never again eating butter-slathered toast and runny eggs.)

Fortunately, someone much smarter and persistent than me has tackled the project, with a wonderful blog called Say What, Michael Pollan?

On it, Adam Merberg has addressed a letter to Pollan, which raises some very credible arguments pertaining to Pollan's recent New York Review of Books article, "The Food Movement, Rising". 

And what was Pollan's response? Sixty-six words from his assistant, thanking Merberg for the letter. 

That's too bad, because I'd really like to know how a farm can be completely self-sufficient—in other words, producing "a free lunch"—when the chickens who fertilize its crops are fed grain from off the farm. Maybe it's because the phrase "chicken feed" has come to mean negligible, or insubstantial, that Pollan dismisses the sustainability issues of feeding livestock, including the lowly chicken, with grain that contains "forty percent more calories than the farm's output". 

You can read Merberg's review of The Omnivore's Dilemma here. It really kills, something a vegan is loathe to do. But contrary to Pollan's assertion, we vegans aren't actually all that naive and unrealistic. Arguments like Pollan's deserve what they get: a few good twists with a sharp-edged knife. Right through the jugular. 

Sort of like how Merberg expertly skewers Pollan's "transaction" between himself and a pig:

In Pollan’s case, though, any arguments about good intentions ring hollow in light of the obvious fact that the pig’s interests were extinguished two weeks ago.

Ah, the "incompleteness of our transcendence of our animal nature."

From now on, if anyone mentions Michael Pollan, I'll just point to Say What, Michael Pollan? Because you really don't want to get me started. 

(Crossposted at What Do I Know)

Pass the French Fries; Hold the Beverage Milk

I found this graph someone posted on Facebook interesting. Looks like much of the average American food consumption is food I don't even eat: dairy products, cheese, eggs, fish, poultry, red meat and corn syrup. I'm also older, taller, and thinner than the average female, so I guess I don't quite eat 1996.3 lbs of food each year, either.

(I like how, by eliminating half that circle, I'm able to eat much more than my fair share of all the other stuff, without feeling the least bit deprived. More cookies for me!) 

What surprised me is how many pounds of vegetables Americans eat. With all the talk about the SAD diet, I'd have thought it would be lower, but pound for pound, it's more than meat of any kind. (Maybe they eat a lot of butternut squash and potatoes.) Sadly, though, Americans eat more sugar than wheat flour—since many sweet products are baked goods, it's hard to imagine that. 

And what the heck are "beverage milks"? Whatever it is, Americans drink about 4 times as much of them as coffee. And who lied when they reported they only ate 23 lbs of pizza a year? Certainly this survey did not include college students, or, in my experience, campaign workers. 

If anyone can point me to a similar chart showing UK food consumption, I'd be interested to see the difference. It'd be great to see how much yeast extract the average Brit eats. 

Vegetarianism: Catch It

This past Thanksgiving was perhaps the veggiest on record. (I'm into records this month.) In my cruising around the web, which is where I get most of my impressions about the United States these days, I noticed quite a few veggie-themed Thanksgiving ideas. The New York Times and the Washington Post both featured vegetarian feasts, with the NY Times posting quite a few recipes on its health and wellness blog.

As I mentioned below, I got my hands on Gourmet magazine's final issue, and on the cover it boasted 20 veggie dishes. That's unprecedented—I'd given up reading it due to the meatiness of its covers. (Note to magazine designers: slabs of beef and bird carcasses are an instant turn-off for veggies.)

It turns out it wasn't just my impression. Kathy Freston (proving that all Kathys think alike) noticed the same thing. Here's her article on AlterNet, 10 Signs Vegetarianism Is Catching On. (Thanks, Bazu, for bringing this to my attention on Facebook.)

It's not all Thanksgiving related—obviously, the rest of the world doesn't even celebrate Thanksgiving but all over the globe people are switching to veg diets, especially as awareness increases of the impact livestock has on climate and environment. Jonathan Safron Foer, who's been all over the TV and the internet lately, says 18% of students on college campuses eat veggie diets. That's a huge increase from when I went to college. 

What's more, there are more vegan cookbooks than ever on the shelves—in the United States, at least. Again, it was Bazu at Where's the Revolution? who brought that to my attention, with her five reviews of five vegan cookbooks in five days. And new vegan products are coming out every day, at least in the U.S. MatchMeats has recently begun selling fake meat products in shops in the East Coast. The food giant Cargill has developed a dairy-free cheese process, which they claim will make commercial vegan cheeses even more like their dairy counterparts. It's tastier and more convenient than ever to be a vegetarian or vegan in America.

But the news is not all good. Developing countries are consuming more and more meat, associating it with the good life their first world brethren have enjoyed for decades. But as Foer also points out, we once changed our diets similarly—we “now eat 150 times as much chicken as we did 80 years ago,” he says, which is a perfect rebuttal to those who say we'll never change our diets: we can and we did. Why not this time go back to the diets our grandmothers ate?

Where to begin, you ask. If you're reading this blog, then you've already been exposed to hundreds of vegan recipes, all of which you are perfectly capable of replicating in your kitchen, I assure you. But if you want more advice, check out another Kathy's Beginner's Guide to Conscious Eating. It's pretty good advice, in fact, I couldn't have written it better myself.

Livestock's even longer shadow

 

These cows are cute, but they're destroying our planet.

You probably remember the United Nations report that came out in 2006 called Livestock's Long Shadow, which estimated that the greenhouse gases produced by livestock was equal to 18 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. It made a big splash in environmental circles, convincing a lot of people there was no way to eliminate growth of GHG (greenhouse gas) without taking a good long look at the way we eat.

Well, now there's another study that takes into account more factors than the original report, and it concludes that instead of 18 percent, livestock contributes 51 percent of worldwide GHG emissions, more than double the amount estimated by the troubling report of 2006. 

So that pretty much seals the deal. We should all give up meat and switch to fish, right?

Not so fast. It turns out our oceans are just one big Ponzi scheme, according to this well-researched article, Aquacalypse Now by Daniel Pauly, a professor of the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia. Stocks are being depleted far, far faster than the fishing-industrial complex has been willing to admit. New technologies, like GPS fish finders, are giving fishing fleets the edge over fish, and stocks are unable to keep up, especially since government regulations haven't been tightened to reflect the depleted state of the world's fisheries. For some fish, the stock has been reduced by 90 percent. And one study estimates that all commercial fish stocks will have collapsed by 2048. 

But farmed fish is okay, right?

Wrong. Most farm fish is carnivorous fish, meaning they eat smaller fish, harvested from—you guessed it—the sea. It takes 3 or 4 pounds of ground herring, mackerel and sardines to create one pound of farmed salmon. That's not very efficient, and not sustainable either.

There is some good news. It turns out that methane, which is 25 times as strong a greenhouse gas as CO2, has a much shorter half life—eight years instead of over 100. And we all know what cows emit when they burp and fart—methane. It's a serious issue, but due to the relatively short half life of methane, eliminating livestock from our diets means very quickly eliminating their potent emissions from the atmosphere—unlike eliminating cars, whose past emissions of CO2 will be around a long, long time. (That doesn't mean, of course, that we shouldn't eliminate as many sources of CO2 as we can, including cars and coal plants.) There's another enormous benefit from eliminating grazing animals, too: reforestation of land used for grazing and growing feed will potentially mitigate as much as half of all GHGs, since trees gobble up CO2 in photosynthesis.

Until we have the ability to generate heat and electricity and fuel using renewable sources that don't emit GHG, the single best thing we can do to postpone global warming is to give up meat and its equally unsustainable cousin, fish.

That also means giving up animal products like dairy, as well, since dairy cows emit methane and consume feed grown on deforested land. (Even breathing, which all living creatures need to do, emits CO2, but the larger the animal, the more respiration it requires—a huge contributory factor when you're estimating the emissions of 2 billion cows.)

But most people, despite the evidence of livestock's damage to the earth, still balk at giving up meat.

I try to imagine how I would feel if, say, someone told me that eating sweets contributes massively to global warming. I love dessert the way some people love bacon. Chocolate, in any form, is one of life's sweetest pleasures. I'd have a hard time giving it up. But I am living proof that giving up meat doesn't mean the end of all gustatory pleasure. There are plenty of meat substitutes, and more coming out every day. Even without meat analogs, there is plenty to fill my plate, or as is often the case, my bowl.

The purpose of this blog, in fact, has been to prove to people that I'm not deprived. By showing readers my meals and passing along recipes, I hope to demonstrate that a diet with no meat, dairy or eggs is not a diet of deprivation. Far from it. (And if my meals don't do the trick, try checking out the many, many vegan blogs and cookbooks. This one, for instance, is particularly un-deprived.)

Give up meat for a week. Tell people you're doing it for the planet, so they don't make fun of you. (The fear of ridicule was one of the main reasons I didn't become vegetarian despite a deep belief that it was the right thing to do.) These days, it's cool to drive a Prius, and it should be even cooler to be a vegan. There's plenty of evidence that eating meat is destroying the planet—just read the report from Worldwatch (pdf) and the earlier UN report. (Maybe you'll want to keep a copy in your glove box, just in case anyone stops to admire your values while you tool around in your electric car.)

And when you drive your Prius to the grocery store, be sure and steer your shopping cart right past the meat aisle. Your planet will thank you.

Jonathan Safran Foer: "If everyone had a cow for a pet..."

Great interview with Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated and the upcoming book Eating Animals. A vegetarian since the age of ten, Foer says "Virtually every American is born into the idea that eating meat is healthy, normal." But he bucked the belief with relative ease, and believes everyone he knows will be a vegetarian in 20 years.

Everything is illuminated, indeed.

Food news, better late than never

My bookmarks are overflowing with food news links I haven't posted in a while. Saturday's a great day for clearing it all out, so here goes:

Another day, another study tying red meat to cancer. This one studied 175,343 American men and determined red meat increased the risk of prostate cancer. (If 175,000 isn't a large enough study, here's one with half a million.)

Meat is murder for the environment, too: "A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home." But how many people would deliberately leave a light on, yet think nothing of eating a hamburger?

"The dilemma: Wine is good for your heart, but not so great for your liver." So eat this yummy vegetable.

I love that Michelle Obama gets kudos for taking the elitism out of the food movement.

It's not that hard to reduce your risk for heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes by 78%.

In fact, I'd like to reduce my risk for those four diseases by eating at Fatty's. Or maybe Ubuntu.

National flags made out of food. I like India's the best, though I could make something good out of Italy's. Switerland's looks exactly like the selection at the roadside restaurants we've stopped at. (Which is why you should just keep driving all the way to Italy.)

In a time of international recession, should you use reusable shopping bags?

Vegan diets are becoming more mainstream.

Gotta try this: Homemade pecan milk.

The Pescatore's Dilemma. How about this solution: Don't eat things with a face. Easy.

Brain fog? Read this: Burgers Made Me Dumb.

Five ways vegetarianism can save you money.

Food News: Hops Edition

The debate: German or American beer? Most people would assume German beer is better, but don't be so fast: What about America's microbrews? And isn't Beck's just Budweiser with a shorter name?

I scoff at both sides of this debate. Everyone knows the best beer on the planet is brewed by the Irish. Not even the title of second best goes to the Germans or Americans; that must go to the Belgians. The Wisconsinites are third.

Now, before you give up on summer fruits, how do you prolong the life of berries? Heat them. (That's not a typo; I didn't mean "eat them," although that will do for later.)

And speaking of fruit, how long does fruit stay nutritious? Hint: It depends on the polyphenols, which are phenomenal for your health too.

Even more fruity stuff: How to cut a mango.

The real price of cheap food. So how come I have to subsidize your bacon with my taxes, but you don't subsidize my broccoli?

Are prepared foods making us fat? Probably, especially in America, where almost every prepared food contains HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). See above for why that is.

I love that there is no vegan's dilemma. Well, except for beer.

Food news, pet peeves, and squirrels

Big Chicken wants to kill Grandma! (See how easy it is to make up misleading headlines?) But this one contains more than a kernel of truth: Chicken producers ignore scientists' (and the FDA's) concerns about antibiotic resistance, including to a class of antibiotics that fight pneumonia (which kills many Grandmas) in order to save money. By injecting powerful antibiotics into eggs, they can omit shed cleaning and save money. Ewww! (via)

Are you trying to go low-carb? You're better off if you stick with plant proteins.

On the other hand, if you're going on a low-carbon diet, there's even more reason to stick with plants.

But if you thought a plant-based diet meant you'd have to give up deviled eggs, think again: Vegan deviled eggs. (Be still my heart!)

Are potatoes the reason human population progressed? Possibly.

For beer enthusiasts, the Two Extremes of German Beer.

Vegans everywhere agree, we HATE when people dis the vegan lifestyle by assuming we dread dinner. Here's Julia Child on the subject. (via Susanffvk) Just for the record, I look forward to dinner every night, and I do not own a Julia Child cookbook.

How the junk food industry hooks us. (Thought it was just accidental that you couldn't eat just one Dorito?)

Now, this has nothing to do with food. (At least I hope not.) But it's really cute. Really.

In-vitro meat in ten years?

You've probably heard of in-vitro meat as a pie-in-the-sky alternative to animal-based meat:

A pioneering group of scientists are working to grow real animal protein in the laboratory, which they not only claim is better for animal welfare, but actually healthier, both for people and the planet. It may sound like science fiction, but this technology to create in-vitro meat could be changing global diets within ten years.

It sounds like so-called in-vitro meat is getting closer to reality. I'm happy about that. Not only is in-vitro meat better for animals, it's better for people's health and better for the environment.

But there are already many meat alternatives, which don't chemically replicate animal tissue, but are tasty all the same. And they're reasonably inexpensive, even more so when the true cost of meat is considered—the grain which animals eat is heavily subsidized by the government (in the U.S.), as is the grassland they graze if they're free-range.

So the good news is, you don't have to wait for in-vitro meat to start improving your health, the health of animals, and the health of the globe! You can find fake meat at almost any supermarket in the US, and in Britain there are even more options. Boca burgers, Gimme Lean, Quorn, Tofurkey, and Morningstar Farms can be found in U.S. supermarkets, and in the UK, you'll find Grassington's, Fry's, and of course a wide variety of Quorn products. All are acceptible (though not all are fully vegan) meat alternatives.

So if you really want something on your plate that looks and tastes like meat but doesn't involve suffering, there already are plenty of choices.

But I'm curious: Would you try in-vitro meat if it were available?

Food news and Unidentified Flying Cheese

What happens when you label menus with calorie information? Turns out restaurants cut the calorie content of their food. Which suggests that it probably wasn't that hard to do in the first place, but they had no reason to cut calories, since people prefer calorie laden dishes—but only when they don't realize how many calories are in them. 

But here's the snag: Turns out those calories aren't what they say they are.

There is, actually, sort of good news about obesity. But not for everyone.

College Vegan is a little annoyed. Why do eco-nerds eat meat anyway? (Maybe they haven't read Ezra's Gut Check, The Meat of the Problem.)

But there is one eco-nerd who has decided to forgo meat eating, despite the fact he loves the taste. Why?

The answer is simple: I have an 11-year-old son whose future—like yours and mine—is rapidly unraveling due to global warming. And what we put on our plates can directly accelerate or decelerate the heating trend.

But maybe you'd prefer to eat more chocolate. 

On the other hand, veggies boost your brain power. Chocolate-dipped carrots, anyone?

If you eat whole-wheat pasta, it may help your blood pressure. But if it's cholesterol you're worried about, try peanut butter.

Did you hear about the cheese that went into outer space and then came back to Buckinghamshire? It landed about 10 miles from where I sit here blogging, I kid you not.

Food News you can drink

Eat your way to a facial: 10 foods you must eat to fight wrinkles. (pdf) Yumm. Except for number 4, that is.

Fancy fast food...still bad for you, but looks like it came from a four star restaurant.

Some people have a lot of fun playing with their food...but can a vegetarian still eat it if it looks like a frog?

The New Yorker book editor takes a look at books delving into why Americans are fat. It's a must read.

Roasted watermelon? Robin Robertson gives it a go, but isn't overly impressed.

You coffee lovers might like this: a better way to drip.

More coffee concoctions, this time from Italy, where iced coffee isn't to be served but for some reason you can shake ice in your coffee until it melts and that's okay.

A new reason to skip bottled water. Or at least to bottle your own, which is what I do when I can.

Is this a good time to rant about the lack of public drinking fountains in England? Okay, consider it a rant: It's downright impossible to find public drinking fountains here. And it's not like they'd be a place to store bombs (like rubbish bins, another endangered species). Or that there's a shortage of water in England. So why no public drinking fountains?

Food News for Wednesday

I've never heard of The Cheesecake Factory, but apparently you can order miso salmon (in cheesecake form?) there. Sounds gross, but it's actually not, according to people who've eaten there. The problem is it's laden with calories...1,673 to be precise. The other problem is that it tastes good, which is a problem because, as Ezra Klein points out, it's hard to get people to stop eating things that taste good.

This looks like it tastes good.

Ever wonder about the nutritional benefits of nuts? Here they are, in a nutshell.

It turns out that convenience foods aren't all that convenient.

Have you seen the film The End of the Line? Worried about sustainable fish? Try substituting tofu in fish recipes. I do it all the time, with excellent results.

Look, Bazu's giving away a cookbook!

This is my beef (sorry!) with vegetable gardens. Most people do not have the time, inclination, proper soil, or knowledge to successfully grow vegetables at home. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with supermarket carrots.

Looking for a recipe for ginger ale? No, I wasn't either.

Why you should eat your crusts.

The Washington Post food writer thinks you can be a vegetarian except for a burger once in a while from Five Guys. How about if you make it a veggie burger?

Food news, Sunday edition

News alert: don't cut your carrots before cooking them. No word on if you should peel them.

What not to eat: supermarket salad.

What's fatter than the Fat Duck? The Fat Duck in London: Heston announces new restaurant in London.

What to do with chiles: Make hand grenades.

I have never wanted to grow my own. But some people learn the hard way.

From what I'm reading, in the U.S. coconut is the new soy. It will be awhile before the trend hits the UK, sadly.

Sparkling water is still bottled water. And also tastes nasty.

Burger King have finally figured out that sex sells. Seriously. (I stick with their BK Veggie whenever I visit the States.)

Good news: Most of the NY Times Healthy Foods for Under $1 are vegan. 

Blog friend Chris discovers the Carnivore's Dilemma. My sympathies, but really, a vegan diet is better than you imagine.

Food News: Calorie-laden edition.

Sorry for my absence of late; I was on vacation in the Alps where I was not enjoying good food. Still not up to eating adventurous edibles, so don't look for recipes from me this week. (One note: I should say I discovered boil-in-a-bag rice in Austria. Not bad.)

Let's talk calories. The Whopper with cheese has 62% of your daily recommended calorie intake. And something called "Fried Macaroni and Cheese" has more calories than a stick of butter—and 69 grams of saturated fat. Don't you think restaurants should have to post this information on their menus? The Senate thinks so too, and plans to include such requirements in the health-care reform bill.

Speaking of fast food, I haven't seen this Burger King commercial, but it sounds creepy. Also sounds like it's not working.

And, the twelve most expensive foods. There are actually a few of those I'd eat, including the diamond martini. Though right now I'd prefer the Tieguanyin tea.

Should we tax meat? Or simply allow its cost to reflect the true cost of producing it?

Don't believe Mother Jones; the White House garden is not "contaminated".

An interesting article about tempeh, that almost put me off tempeh. Can't get over that image of dirty feet making tempeh? Try these slides.

How does a chocolate chip cookie wield such power? Even over the head of the FDA?

The benefits of red wine, from lowering risk for Alzheimer's disease to reducing the harmful effects of smoking.

Now, go burn some calories.

Food News to fill you up

Did you know there's an island off the coast of Greece where one out of three people live into their nineties? And that they eat a lot of greens and drink herbal tea?

"My bologna has a first name, it's c-a-n-c-e-r". That's right; your bologna is full of carcinogens. Don't eat it. (Unless it's vegan, of course, then it's not called c-a-n-c-e-r.)

And for good measure, try these cancer fighting grains: kasha, quinoa, millet, and spelt.

Here's the gossip section of this publication: Well-known food writer runs into the Obamas at her neighborhood restaurant.

(Sequé) When I go through Germany next week, I'm going to look for this, Spicy Obama Mustard.

"Your waistline in charts": Food prices over time. Conclusion: Not only should we tax bad-for-you foods, but we should subsidize healthy foods.

In green tea news: Green tea is good for your teeth. And your knees.

Something to do with those obnoxious weeds: Put them on your pizza.

I really love this weight-loss tip: Eat bread with olive oil to curb hunger pains.

British supermarkets are accused of destroying the rainforest by selling meat from irresponsible farms. Well duh! Not only are cows grazed on former rainforest land in Brazil, but where do you think animal feed given to your local cows and chickens comes from?

Just in case you were wondering, Pringles are potato chips. (Though I must warn you, the Pringles you get here don't taste the same as US Pringles. They're even more like cardboard here, if that's possible.)

Fasting for Food News

I am currently fasting for a blood test that doesn't occur until 2 p.m. So I'm trying to avoid websites with food. Which makes it really hard to compile Food News.

But while surfing through Andrew Sullivan's blog I came across this link: Can people distinguish pâté from dog food? Here's the study (pdf), and it makes for some disgusting reading. No, not the dog food part, but the whizzed Spam part. So the idea of pâté took away my appetite. Then I read they served it on Carr water crackers...oh god. Get me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Stat.

By the way, if you're looking for high quality dog food in England, check out Pero. It's made in Wales, and my dog says it's excellent. But then my dog would eat Spam, so what does she know?

See, I need to stay away from blogs written by my favorite cookbook authors. Like this.

And read more articles about things I hate, like tomatoes. Even non-leak tomatoes are disgusting. There, just looking at that slimy tomato takes away the edge a little bit.

And I should definitely not read about the UK's Five Most Vegetarian-friendly Uni's. (A uni is what they call a university here. The memory of my university days is starting to nibble away at my appetite—donuts at Tolliver Dining Hall that had the same mass as a linebacker, hitting your empty stomach with the same force...oh god.)

Here we go: Burned meat linked to pancreatic cancer. Not hungry at all now.

And I was going to read this article on The New Veganism but that bowl of chickpeas is way too appetizing.

Thank god for Boing Boing, who found someone inserting spaghetti into hot dogs, for a truly appetite-suppressing photo.

And I'll leave on this note: totally man-made food. I'm thinking of eating my keyboard.

Food News, Sunday Edition

Useful site: Stilltasty.com tells you how long you can keep anything in the fridge. Including the jar of chipotle peppers I opened four weeks ago.

Does "health aura" explain why the mere presence of salad on a menu prompts people to order French fries more often? (Be sure to read the amusing first comment from Sheila.)

Good news for chocoholics: Now you can breathe in chocolate to curb your chocolate cravings. I'd prefer the patch approach myself. 

And more reason to eat chocolate: It improves your maths.

My favorite way to prevent lung cancer: Peanut butter.

(Maybe this peanut butter and chocolate tartelette will cure your lung cancer AND make you soar at sums!)

"Yes We Can" Flan? Does that rhyme? Maybe if you speak British, where the letter A can do all sort of crazy things. There's also the Barack O'bhuna, a spicy curry dish, invented to pay homage to Obama's cultural heritage.

When the National Resources Defense Council met for a $2000 plate dinner recently, the menu was vegetarian. It's about time they walk the walk, err, eat the eat.

I'm sure this article in Grist is great, but I can't get beyond the beautiful photo. Yellow squash, how I love you. And miss you.

"Vegan pie", in Unnecessary Quotes. Well, is it? Or isn't it?

It's about time supermarkets in the UK recognize how unnecessary their excessive packaging is. But asking customers to tear it off and leave it at the till?

High fructose corn syrup examined: the conclusion isn't as clear as you'd think.

One last reminder: Fish suffer. Don't eat them. And vegetarians don't.

Free Food News!

We gave away our St Patrick's Day vegan cupcakes and all I got back was this photo.

That's right; there's no charge for this installment of Food News. So keep reading.

You've heard about pathogens in our pork? This applies to my readers in the US, where the deadly bacteria MRSA (pronounced "mersa" in the US and MRSA in the UK) is primarily found in meat, particularly pork. It results from high levels of antibiotics that are routinely given to farm animals, which encourages the worst bugs to become antibiotic resistant. Here in the UK, where antibiotic use isn't as prevalent, MRSA is found in dirty hospitals. Food for thought.

Cilantro: love it or hate it? Or perhaps you call it coriander. Either way, it appears that if you hate it, perceiving its taste as soap, you may lack a taste receptor that allows the rest of us to perceive its fresh goodness. Trust us; eating cilantro is NOT like eating Irish Spring! Although, like Irish Spring, it may kill some bacteria.

Against obnoxious recipes. Sign me up.

This is why you're fat.

Speaking of fat, the Fat Duck reopens after making people sick. Hey, I tried to warn you guys about snail porridge.

Best Flickr comment:  "The first time a bowl of soup has reminded me of US Airways Flight 1549."

Obesity can take years off your life.

Try consuming a little less salt. Well, okay. Maybe.

Someone you know have a birthday coming up? (Ahem.) "The Face on Your Plate" would make a great gift, wouldn't it?

Speaking of birthdays—I have to go make a birthday cake now.

Fat-free food news

Does this pantry make my butt look fat? Actually, I love that pantry. My next house is going to have a huge walk-in larder. Of course if I call it a larder I'll just get fat thinking about it. Good article, though, on how to organize your pantry to avoid getting fat.

Say no to pot!

Seriously, you really should say no to pot roast: Too much red meat may increase age-related blindness.

Also, if you eat less you may remember more.

But on the other hand, if you want your pre-schoolers to eat more, give their vegetables catchy names.

Maybe you could try this: Hamburger = Hummer.

And finally, if it's not your pantry making you fat, maybe it's the recipes.

Food news, with a dash of opinion

First, the bad news: It appears sugar is worse for you than previously thought. In addition to increasing your waistline, it also increases your wrinkles.

If you think you've been served awful airplane food, read this guy's letter to Virgin Atlantic on what is possibly the worst airplane meal ever.

Food cures, for cavities, strengthening eyes, and other health issues. Turns out something as simple as parsley can strengthen your bones.

Winter whites that are also superfoods, despite their lack of pigmentation.

But don't forget to eat your broccoli.

Starbucks cuts back on Decaf. (Try their Tazo Zen tea instead.)

If, like me, you don't like Cadbury Creme Eggs, try using them for this instead. Looks like fun!

Seeds of change!

Who is the food villain of the week? I vote for the mercury, I mean corn syrup, producers.

A mum received a note from her child's school, admonishing her for packing an unhealthy lunch for her child. What do you think, is it a school's business what a parent chooses to provide for their child at lunch? I think, as we can see from reading my food news tidbits, there is no agreement on what's healthy and what's not among the general public. I see no problem with a chocolate sandwich now and then; in my book it's better than a tuna sandwich.

Food News, White House edition

The history of growing food at the White House. Example: "1814: A minor British setback"

What to eat: Dirt.

What not to eat: Big blob of fat with bacteria.

Evidence of a CAFO pork superbug. Isn't it nice to have an administration that will investigate things like this?

Finally, a scientific explanation of the "beer goggles" effect:

Are hot liquids really good for a cold? (Yes; try green tea.)

And one more reason to drink green tea, if you're trying to lose abdominal fat.

Food stuff on the internet

Food stuff I've come across while looking for other stuff on the internet...

If you're trying to focus more on health these days, as many are in January, check out this website: Nutrition Data. You can plug in a food and find out everything you ever wanted to know, nutritionally, about it. You can even create recipes using nutritional data. Have fun!

The challenge: Create a vegetarian foie gras that is as close as possible in taste, texture, and form to real foie gras. The reward: $10,000.

The Chicago health commissioner is encouraging everyone to go veg in January. And I suspect people will find it so easy in January they'll try February too.

Speaking of Chicago, what would you cook for the Obamas? Mollie Katzen wants to cook them lentil soup, which in these economic times seems like a good idea.

As long as it's not one of the 20 worst foods in America.

Now, get some sleep...in the Hamburger Bed. And to go with it, try this Hamburger Plush Pillow. I understand it's vegan, so eat up.

Squirrelly Food News

 

No, that has not been photoshopped

Many Food News-worthy items have come to my attention, but none wackier than Cajun Squirrel Crisps, brought to you by Walkers. It's all about a new flavour competition they're sponsoring. Another idea, a fish-and-chip flavoured crisp, came from a 20-year vegetarian, Jane Hallam, a 45-year-old social worker from Sheffield. You can go here to vote for your favourite. I'm voting for Onion Bhaji.

In other news, wacky and not:

Ben and Jerry's has announced an Obama ice cream, just in time for the inauguration. Yes, Pecan is supposed to rhyme with the O-slogan Yes We Can, but if you pronounce "pecan" correctly, it just sounds odd. Unless you go around saying Yes We Cahn, so maybe this is geared for the British.

The LA Times has a pretty good article on pasta. Read it, but first put a big pot of water on to boil.

In health news, running around like squirrels on treadmills will not help you lose weight. You have to eat right. Which probably isn't welcome news to Walker's Crisps fans.

I loved this English translation of an Indian article on Speculoos: "Belgians love bread new: purée speculaas"

The Economist says there's a new chile, hotter than the habanero, and it's only available at Tesco, where they refuse to sell it to children. I call bullshit. I shop at Tesco all the time and I've never seen it. Plus the till workers are so harried I doubt they care if a twelve-year-old wants a pepper. But read the article anyway; there's some interesting analysis there on how our tastes are getting hotter.

Johann Hari says bananas may no longer exist in 20 years, at least not in their present form. It sounds a little alarmist to me, especially as the fungus killing banana trees has been around for about a hundred years, but who knows? I'll eat more now just to make up for the future.

The former "superfood extraordinaire" pomegranate has sold out, and is now on the menu at Jack-in-the-Box. I guess next they'll be serving the Bono Burger.

Food news, holiday edition

KISS for Christmas: Simple holiday fare the best, says the NY Times (and, ironically, Martha Stewart).

And here's the black bean chili recipe they talk about from Bon Appetit. If you really want to make it simple and low cost, leave off grating the orange peel and just use orange juice, either fresh or from the fridge. And use dried beans, soaked for several hours (six is usually enough for black beans).

I thought this was a joke, but apparently Yahoo Finance thinks not: Burger King launches beef-scented body spray. It's bad enough people eat smelly food on the tube; now they're going to smell like that all the time? Pee-you!

Contaminated animal feed, which recently plagued Irish ham and beef products, is more common than you think. Nestle blames it for melamine-laced baby milk. (This is what happens when demand for meat is greater than the supply, folks. Get used to it as third-world demand ramps up.)

Forget simplicity; this is what holiday food should look like. (All vegan, of course.)

Now I need to get back to my own holiday preparations, which include this and this and this. And some other stuff I'll blog about later.

What's on the plates of environment ministers in Poland?

In the NY Times today there's an article about emissions from farm animals, which emit 18 percent of the emissions that are raising global temperatures. More than from all forms of transportation.

The head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, says we should eat less meat. Yet the UN also expects beef and pork consumption to double between 2000 and 2050, as developing nations become wealthier and can afford what previously would have been a delicacy.

A lot of people tell me they'd like to eat less meat, but they like the taste too much to give it up. I have no sympathy for this argument. There are dozens of non-meat substitutes out there, available everywhere, that taste perfectly fine. My Dutch friend showed me a vegetarian protein option available in The Netherlands, Valess. It uses protein from dairy—not ideal—but still an option for those wishing to cut out meat. The company estimates 40 percent of the population fit this category.

At a party I held last year, I served Quorn "chicken tenders" for the youngsters, who gobbled them up not knowing they weren't made from flesh. In fact, there's a study that says that people can't tell the difference between vegan sausages and the "real" thing. Other taste experiments prove that people can't tell the difference between other flavors, such as strawberry and chocolate, or expensive and cheap wine.

The NY Times article talks about the efforts, including research costing tens of millions of dollars in New Zealand alone, that meat producers are going to in order to produce "green" meat. It would be much simpler to encourage people to give up meat altogether, or at least reduce their consumption sharply, than to try to capture manure emissions or breed less belching cows.

While environment ministers from 187 nations are meeting this week in Poland, I hope they give some thought to reducing, rather than greening, meat consumption. If they act now, they may can save what's left of South American rain forests.

I also hope their dinner plates contain meat substitutes, rather than real beef and chicken and pork. I bet they wouldn't know the difference either.

UPDATE: Oh, wait, someone else has already said this.